Simon Jones wins England recall

Simon Jones has made a welcome return to the England fold - but not just yet to Test cricket. On the day that the selectors decided to keep faith with the same squad who defeated New Zealand for next week's first Test against South Africa at Lord's, the fast bowler was included in the 30-man Champions Trophy squad.

Jones last played for England in 2005, just as that remarkable Ashes series was coming to a head. Since then a knee injury, not the first to have interrupted his career, has kept him from rekindling his potent brand of fast bowling, a frustration that threatened his sanity but not his determination to return to full-time cricket.

"It's very hard watching England, but sport is a cruel thing sometimes," said Jones, whose career has been resurrected following his move from Glamorgan to Worcestershire. "On bad days you do think negatively. Last year I worked so hard but it wasn't going right for me. That's when you start doubting yourself. But the new lease of life I've had at Worcestershire has really got me going and into my cricket again."

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A fit and firing Jones is an awesome bowler, as his 18 Ashes victims in 2005, and one or two others this season will attest.

England national selector Geoff Miller said: "He's got a chance of making the final squad for the Champions Trophy and of getting back in the Test side but he's got to keep taking wickets.

"If he performs like he did in the 2005 Ashes then we've got something special there and it's absolutely fantastic that both he and Steve Harmison are knocking on the door again. It gives us some healthy competition for bowling places."

One bowler in the Champions Trophy squad (the event is in Pakistan in September) unlikely to be familiar to most outside the East Midlands is Nottinghamshire's Darren Pattinson. Born in Grimsby but raised in Australia, Pattinson, along with team-mate Samit Patel, has won recognition on the back of some solid Twenty20 performances.

One noticeable omission to the 30 names on the printed sheet - which will be whittled down to 15 in a month - was the small (c) that denotes the captain, something in place next to Michael Vaughan's name in the 12 for the first Test but not in evidence in the provisional squad for the Champions Trophy.

Miller explained this by saying that the present focus was on Test cricket and that England's current one-day captain Paul Collingwood still had three games of his ban to serve. Yet Collingwood will have done his time when the Champions Trophy starts, which deepens the intrigue.

The settled nature of the Test team, following home and away series wins against New Zealand, means there was no need for the selectors to pick Andrew Flintoff just yet. Should England start with their intended XI at Lord's, it would be the sixth successive time the same team have taken the field, a unique achievement in cricket.

A good showing from Flintoff for Lancashire against Hampshire during the Test would almost certainly prevent it from becoming seven. His growing presence, like the juggernaut that starts out as a dot on the horizon, will place several of the current team on notice of their performances. Depending on whether Flintoff comes back as an all-rounder or a bowler, none of Collingwood, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad and James Anderson can rest entirely easy.

"If Andrew starts putting in the performances with the bat that he used to do, we would probably think in terms of him batting at six," Miller said. "But a lot of games are won at six, seven, eight and nine, so we would try and strengthen that area as much as possible."